Vengeance

37 NATANZ, IRAN

Harrison was the last to drop onto the floor in the center of the facility’s upper level. The other team members were crouched, each facing outward in a different direction. It was mostly dark in the upper level; the main lights were off, with a few perimeter lights illuminating the area, which was filled with a dozen centrifuge fabrication and assembly centers.

They surveyed the expansive area, searching for the security guard who supposedly patrolled the level during the night shift. Khalila spotted the man first.

“Security guard, north side.”

In the distance, Harrison spotted an armed guard appearing from behind one of the fabrication centers, moving along the facility perimeter.

“Cover,” Harrison ordered, and the team moved behind nearby equipment as they monitored the guard’s movement.

The guard continued his perimeter route for a while, then turned into a center corridor that would take him within ten feet of the team’s present location. Leviathan was in the best position, with a clear shot once the guard approached within twenty feet, so Harrison ordered Leviathan to neutralize the guard while the others remained concealed.

Leviathan took aim, awaiting the guard’s arrival, then squeezed the trigger of his MCX Rattler with attached noise suppressor, putting a round between the man’s eyes. Cutlass and Pile Driver moved quickly, dragging the guard behind a nearby equipment console.

After determining there were no other guards on this level, Harrison directed Cutlass and Pile Driver to begin setting charges, with the timers set for one hour, which should give them enough time to place the explosives on both levels and ascend back through the ventilation shaft. Everyone set the timers on their watches, then Harrison led Leviathan and Khalila toward stairs and elevators on the west end.

Not wanting to risk taking an elevator in case there were cameras inside, they took a staircase cut from the mountain rock. After descending several hundred feet, they reached the lower level. They stopped to survey the uranium enrichment plant, which contained row upon row of tall centrifuges stretching into the distance. On the south side was a small, well-lit control room with glass panels. Inside was another security guard, talking with a female technician wearing a white lab coat and black hijab, sitting at a control panel.

Assuming the guard patrolled this level similarly to the upper-level guard, Harrison decided to wait until the man resumed his patrol, which would bring him to within striking range. However, the guard seemed more interested in the woman than his patrol, and Harrison couldn’t afford to wait. They had only fifty minutes left and they hadn’t yet placed any charges on this level.

Harrison directed Leviathan and Khalila to wait at the staircase while he took care of the guard and technician. He moved from centrifuge to centrifuge, working his way toward the control room. When he reached the last row, he peered around the centrifuge he was hiding behind. The woman was facing the centrifuges while the guard leaned against the console, his back to Harrison. Although the woman could spot Harrison if she looked in his direction, she was focused on the guard.

Slowly, Harrison brought the MCX Rattler to his shoulder and peered through the sight. Taking aim at the back of the guard’s head, he pulled the trigger.

The man’s head snapped forward and Harrison surged toward the control room as the man slumped to the ground. The woman’s face clouded in confusion at first, then she screamed once she realized what had happened. Harrison entered the control room as the woman shifted his gaze toward him, and it was at that moment that he realized he should have sent Khalila instead. He wanted to spare the woman’s life, informing her that she would be safe as long as she cooperated. Unfortunately, he didn’t speak Farsi.

It may not have mattered. The woman immediately lurched toward the control panel, her hand reaching toward a large red button. Harrison reacted instinctively, putting a bullet into the woman’s head.

With the guard sprawled on the floor and the woman slumped in her chair, Harrison directed Leviathan and Khalila to join him. The two arrived as he pulled the woman to the ground, hiding her and the guard from sight on the floor.

He checked his watch. Forty-five minutes left.

Looking out from the control room, Harrison examined the enrichment plant. There were more than two thousand centrifuges in operation, and they had three dozen explosive charges between them. After assessing the centrifuge plant layout, he decided they would split up, with Khalila and Leviathan placing their charges along the perimeter while he attached his to centrifuges down the center.

They moved out and Harrison placed his first charge, heading deeper into the centrifuge labyrinth.

In the security surveillance cell on the upper level, Amer Sarsour looked up from his magazine, giving the console displays a cursory survey. He stopped on a feed from one of the lower-level cameras, fixed on the centrifuge control room. Ahmad had been talking to Fatima the last time he checked, but neither were visible now. He grinned at first, concluding the two were up to no good on the control room floor. But on second thought, that didn’t seem like something Fatima would entertain.

Sarsour also noted that the upper-level security guard hadn’t checked in at the prescribed time, five minutes ago. Something seemed amiss. He scanned the upper- and lower-level cameras, spotting movement on one of them. A black-clad man was moving along the perimeter of the fuel enrichment plant. Sarsour zoomed in on the man, who was wearing body armor and was armed. The man stopped and placed something at the base of a centrifuge, then moved on.

Sarsour slammed his hand on the red security alarm button on his console.

Harrison had just set his last charge and was headed toward the centrifuge control room, where he would rendezvous with Leviathan and Khalila, when a loud wailing siren cut through the silence. The enrichment plant lighting energized, illuminating the level in bright white light. He cursed under his breath, then contacted Khalila and Leviathan. Khalila had finished placing her explosives and had just reached the control room, while Leviathan was setting his last explosive charge now.

Harrison joined Khalila in the control room, and Leviathan was sprinting around the corner toward the control room when a team of four Iranian security guards emerged from one of the elevators. Leviathan was still in the open when the guards turned the other corner, obtaining a clear shot at the former SEAL. Harrison and Khalila provided firing cover, distracting the security guards and forcing them to take cover behind the centrifuges, but not before Leviathan was hit with a burst of gunfire. Two bullets impacted harmlessly on his body armor, but a third round entered his left thigh.

Leviathan made it to the control room, sliding to a halt beside Harrison and Khalila, who were hunkered down behind the control console. Harrison peered above the console, monitoring the Iranian guards who were working their way down the nearest row of centrifuges toward the control room. Harrison considered the wisdom of engaging in a firefight with uranium centrifuges between them. They appeared sturdily constructed, with an outer metal surface, but he had no idea if they were impervious to MCX Rattler bullets.

He preferred not to find out. Neither he nor the other team members had protective breathing gear, and the prospect of puncturing the centrifuges, filling the level with uranium gas, wasn’t appealing. The Iranian guards also seemed concerned, as none had fired on the control room as they worked their way toward them. Had the control room still been sealed he would have considered puncturing a few centrifuges. Unfortunately, his shot on the first guard had pierced one glass panel, and the initial exchange with the guards had shattered another panel.

Harrison tried communicating with Cutlass and Pile Driver, but failed to contact them. However, he heard the faint sound of gunfire over his headset, indicating the two former Delta Force operatives were engaged in a shoot-out in the upper level. As he contemplated their situation, he turned to Leviathan.

“How bad is it?” he asked.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” Leviathan replied with a grin. “I’m good to go.”

Harrison returned his attention to their predicament. The Iranian guards had stopped maneuvering and were hiding behind the nearest row of centrifuges in front of the control room. They seemed content to simply wait, firing upon the intruders if they emerged from behind the control room console, attempting the exposed hundred-foot-long sprint toward the staircase and elevators. Harrison surmised why — reinforcements were likely on the way.

They were trapped.